But it's like, far out, these songs are just sad. Even the instrumentation has a real melancholy to it, but plenty of people just see them as fun, good time songs. But there's almost some real nostalgia in there or something. It's a real emotional slog to get through their albums because of it.

Plus, that guy Chris Brahney who died after the Stone Roses gig... I remember looking at his facebook and his last like was Passion Pit. Made me think of them as way more of a sombre band.

I don't know how it is over there, but here in the states, I've come across a couple ads with "Take A Walk" in them, most notably a Taco Bell ad.
It's hilarious because that's a song about a dude who's trying to make a life for his family and getting fucked by everything around him.

Manners had a lot of really sad stuff going for it ("Moth's Wings" being very notable, even if it was a very hopeful song), but Gossamer is such a tragic record in a lot of places. It's full of pop energy, but every single song is about how broken he is inside, and how he tries to fill that void with drugs and drink. I think that's why I like it, because it feels like a pleasant little in-joke between me and the band. I saw them on the tour for that record, and I got the chance to tell Michael Angelakos that the record really resonated with me for all of those reasons, and he seemed to respond well. So that's something.

I think the thing I enjoy the most about that record is that he's singing from the position of someone who is consciously aware of having a lot of problems that need worked out, but who is somewhat powerless to really fix them. He's very convincing in this, but he never comes off as someone who is pretending to be the victim.